At the start of the clay season, Halep did not have good results, only reaching the quarterfinals at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix and the Mutua Madrid Open, with both losses coming in straight sets to CoCo Vandeweghe and Karolína Plíšková, respectively.

Halep was able to bounce back at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia reaching the final but losing to Elina Svitolina, winning only four games in the match.

However, Halep did not have much luck at the grass courts of Wimbledon, losing in the third round to Hsieh Su-wei after failing to take advantage of a set lead.

[5] Angelique Kerber began her season at the Hopman Cup to represent Germany with Alexander Zverev but lost in the final to Switzerland.

At the Sydney International, Kerber claimed her first title since winning the 2016 US Open defeating local favorite Ashleigh Barty in straight sets.

During the clay court season, Kerber had good results reaching the quarterfinals of Internazionali BNL d'Italia and French Open losing to eventual champions Svitolina and Halep, Respectively.

At the grass season, Kerber suffered an upset in the hands of Alison Riske in the first round of the Mallorca Open, but she bounced back by reaching the semifinals of Eastbourne International losing to top seed Caroline Wozniacki.

At Wimbledon, Kerber won her third grand slam title and her first at the event defeating Serena Williams in the final in straight sets.

She found form in St. Petersburg Ladies' Trophy defeating Kristina Mladenovic in the final, before winning a second title two weeks later at the Qatar Total Open with a three-set victory over Garbiñe Muguruza.

Kvitová's clay court season also began slowly, falling in the first round of Volvo Car Open and Porsche Tennis Grand Prix to Kristýna Plíšková and Angelique Kerber, respectively.

However, she turned her form around in Beijing, where she defeated Anastasija Sevastova in the final, claiming her first Premier Mandatory title in over seven years, doing so without dropping a set all tournament.

[9] Elina Svitolina had an excellent start to the year, claiming the Brisbane International title, defeating Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the final for the loss of just three games.

Her momentum stuttered at the first Premier Mandatory events of the season, losing to Carla Suárez Navarro in the third round of Indian Wells and Jeļena Ostapenko in the quarterfinals of Miami.

Svitolina's transition onto grass courts proved to be a stumbling block for her campaign, once again losing to Buzărnescu in the quarterfinals of Birmingham, followed by a loss to Tatjana Maria in the first round of Wimbledon.

A disappointing Asian swing ensued for Svitolina, as she lost back-to-back opening round matches in Wuhan, to eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka, and Beijing to Aleksandra Krunić.

A quarterfinal defeat to Wang Qiang in Hong Kong meant that qualification for Singapore depended on the performances of her competitors in Moscow.

At the Middle East, Pliskova received an upset loss to Catherine Bellis in the third round of the Qatar Total Open and fell to Angelique Kerber in the quarterfinals of the Dubai Tennis Championships.

At the clay slam of the French Open, Pliskova failed to replicate her success the previous year, falling in two quick sets to Maria Sharapova.

She bounced back by winning her first Premier title defeating Julia Görges in straight sets in the final of the Volvo Car Open.

The following week, she won the biggest title of her career at the Western & Southern Open defeating Simona Halep in the final after saving match points in the second set.

[11] Barbora Krejčíková & Kateřina Siniaková began the year with a final showing at the Shenzhen Open losing to the Romanian team of Begu/Halep in a match tiebreak.

At the French Open, despite only winning one clay match during the lead up events, they were able to claim their first grand slam title defeating the Japanese duo of Hozumi/Ninomiya in straight sets.

After having a poor lead up to the US Open winning only a match, they were able to reach the semifinals, however their grand slam streak was ended by Barty & Vandeweghe in two tight sets.

[12] Tímea Babos & Kristina Mladenovic began their 2018 campaign by winning the Australian Open defeating the Russian pairing of Makarova/Vesnina in straight sets.

They did not reach another final until the clay season at the Mutua Madrid Open facing once again Makarova/Vesnina but this time they end up losing in a match tiebreak.

Strýcová also won the title at the Miami Open pairing with Hsieh Su-wei defeating Makarova/Vesnina and Sestini Hlaváčková reached the final of Sydney International with Latisha Chan losing to Dabrowski/Xu.

On October 4, following the withdrawal of Ekaterina Makarova & Elena Vesnina from the event, the final four slots were occupied by the teams of Gabriela Dabrowski/Xu Yifan, Nicole Melichar/Květa Peschke, Andreja Klepač/María José Martínez Sánchez and Ashleigh Barty/CoCo Vandeweghe.

Gabriela Dabrowski & Xu Yifan won their first title of the year at the Sydney International defeating Chan/Sestini Hlaváčková in straight sets.

However, they were able to bounce back at the Eastbourne International winning the title over the Romanian pairing of Begu/Buzărnescu and reaching the semifinal of Wimbledon losing to runner-ups Melichar/Peschke in three tight sets.

Nicole Melichar & Květa Peschke did not start to have an impact this year until they reached back-to-back finals at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix losing to Atawo/Grönefeld and of the J&T Banka Prague Open defeating Buzărnescu/Marozava.